


Rare Beauty

by planet_plant



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Developing Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Rain, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-20 09:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planet_plant/pseuds/planet_plant
Summary: "You're a hard man to find, Arthur Morgan."OrArthur is gone for just a bit too long on one of his trips and Charles takes it upon himself to find him.





	Rare Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> holy shit it's been a long time lmao
> 
> hi, i'm back ! (formerly moonlight_writes) i left the fandom for a bit but i've recently fell down the hole again and i wanna write! i've had this idea in my head for a long time.i actually had this written a while ago but i never finished it. i ended up deleted it?? which i really regret.
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoy! and i hope i can get more out soon??  
hopefully the last and final part to "Ease" and "Good Grief" !!

Arthur hadn't planned to be gone so long, really he hadn't.

He had originally left Clemens Point to go to Rhodes to pick up some supplies for himself. It would've taken an hour. Maybe two, at the most.

But as he was leaving the gunsmith, he overheard two strangers talking about a rare moose, with fur white as snow, up somewhere near Roanoke Ridge.

He decided right then and there to go and try to find the animal. Though he didn't want to kill it, unlike the men he'd overheard. No, he just wanted to see it, and maybe even capture a photograph of the animal. He knew Charles would love to see it.

So he dipped into the general store to grab a few essentials for the trip and mounted his horse, patting the stallion's neck and apologizing in advance for the long ride ahead of them.

The ride was uneventful, to say the least. The only person he had stopped to talk to was an old blind man he occasionally came across on his travels. He gave the man a dollar. as per usual, and in return, he received some odd mumbo jumbo that Arthur doesn't quite understand. He still thanked the man, though, and wished him well before continuing on his journey.

He made it to his destination by the next afternoon and rode further into the trees, away from the road and away from any curious passersby. He hitched his horse to a nearby thin tree and fed him an apple and a few sugar cubes, finishing off the praises with a firm pat on the neck.

Arthur had only meant to be gone a few days.

Not an entire _week_.

But the damned moose was stubborn, didn't seem to want to show its pale fur to anyone, not even the damned _trees_.

Luckily, Arthur was just as stubborn. The man kept himself occupied while he waited for the animal to show itself. He wandered around the woods surrounding his camp, curiously picking different plants and flowers. He'd went down to the river nearby and fished for a couple of hours, and brought some of the fish down to Annesburg to sell. He kept the remaining four for himself. He'd even went down the road a ways to visit Hamish Sinclair, a man he'd helped only a few weeks prior.

Eventually Arthur figured he'd better just stay still and simply watch, 'cause how is he gonna see anything if he's always moving around, not paying attention?

So he grabbed his journal, a bag of jerky he had gotten from the store, and settled down against a tree near his campsite. His journal lay open on his lap, a few small drawings of the different things he had come across were scribbled onto the pages. A piece of jerky was held between his lips as he concentrated on drawing yet another flower. He'd just finished the last petal when a faint rumble came from above.

His hand paused and he looked upwards towards the sky, immediately spotting the dark grey clouds slowly rolling in. The leaves rustled noisily in the wind that Arthur could barely feel due to the trees surrounding him.

With a small sigh, Arthur closed his journal and stood to his feet, his free hand swiping his hat up from the forest floor. He packed his journal away in his satchel and took a few minutes to move Atlas near a small cluster of trees so he wouldn't get hit by too much rain.

By the time that was done, a light rainfall had begun.

Arthur moved himself to sit right in the entrance of his tent and leaned back on his hands, keeping his eyes peeled for even a glimpse of what he had came for.

It wasn't long before the familiar sound of hooves against the ground met his ears and Arthur tensed, his fingers instinctively grazing the grip of his gun.

There was a beat of silence before a voice spoke, "You're a hard man to find, Arthur Morgan."

The voice is familiar; smooth and deep and one that Arthur had found himself becoming fond if as timed passed. The tenseness in his shoulders melted away and he looked to where the voice came from.

Charles had hitched Taima next to Arthur's own horse and patted her neck softly before turning to face Arthur.

"Dutch send you?" Arthur questioned as the other man approached. Arthur moved over, making some room for Charles to sit. He wasn't going let his friend stand out in the cold rain.

Charles lowered himself down into the spot Arthur had made for him, his shoulder bumping lightly against Arthur's own. "Came on my own. I got worried that something might have happened to you."

Arthur just barely nodded, letting the other man know he had heard him. A comfortable silence fell over the two, the only sound being the rain pelting down on the forest floor and the canvas of Arthur's tent. The heavy rain made it hard to see more than ten feet in front of them and Arthur could only hope that he hadn't missed what he had came there for.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" Charles was the first to break the silence and Arthur tore his gaze from the trees to look at the other man.

"Heard of somethin'. Wanted to see it for myself." Arthur told him and he watched as a look of confusion spread across his friends face.

"...For a week?"

There was a pause before Arthur slowly nodded.

Charles breathed out a faint laugh. "And you just... believed whatever they were talking about?"

Another pause, slightly longer than the first, then a chuckle had bubbled up from Arthur's chest, as he had just realized how insane it all must have sounded to Charles. Arthur, a _grown man_, had heard and _believed_ the words of two complete strangers, who could very likely have been drunk. Who's to say they weren't just talking outta their asses? Was this animal even _real_?

"Yeah, I guess so." Arthur said through his light laughter and he heard Charles join in with his own chuckling.

"Arthur Morgan, you are somethin' else." Charles shook his head as he spoke, scooting back further into the tent so he could stretch his legs out without them getting wet. Arthur's eyes followed his movements for only a split second before he returned his gaze to the forest.

Charles watched him curiously, his own gaze flickering to see exactly what he was looking at before moving back to look at Arthur. "Can I ask what it was they were talking about?"

Arthur's lips parted to answer the man's question when his eyes caught sight of something through the rain, which had calmed over the last few minutes. He sat up straighter, his eyes squinting as if doing so would somehow help him see better. A minute passed before he could finally see it clearly. The animal slowly moved closer as Arthur murmured a small and quiet, "That."

The rain rolled and dripped down the large, pale antlers as the animal lowered its head to yank a few leaves from a bush, its jaw working to chew down the greens. A loud huff of air rushed from its nose and it suddenly shook its body to rid of the rain that had gathered on its fur, the droplets flying in all directions. The dull sound of hooves against the ground met both of the men's ears as the large animal moved a few feet closer.

Charles appeared back at Arthur's side, his arm pressing firmly against Arthur's own as he watched the large animal slowly began walking off in the opposite directions. He'd never seen anything like it. He had heard rumors of all kinds of animals with the same pale white fur but... he'd never actually thought that they were real.

Arthur tore his gaze away from the breathtaking mammal and instead moved it to study Charles' expression. It hadn't changed much but by the way the corners of his mouth had turned upwards the slightest bit, Arthur could tell just how amazed he was. Half of his dark hair was tied back and he wore a blue shirt riddled with small, white dots; a favorite of Arthur's. 

"It's beautiful." Charles suddenly murmured, his voice low as to not startle the rare beauty. The moose had slowly begun wondering away from the small camp, though it still lingered nearby. The rain was now just barely sprinkling down and the sun had begun shining through the clouds, the soft golden rays pouring into the tent and highlighting every small detail of Charles' face.

Arthur blindly reached over to grab his camera to snap a quick photograph before the moose went back to wherever it had been hiding during the entire week. He'd probably only have this once chance to catch a photograph of the stubborn animal.

And as the camera clicked, Arthur couldn't ignore the voice in the back of his head that was saying that although the moose was a rare beauty, Charles was also a rare beauty himself.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope this was okay??
> 
> it was really cheesy n shit but... still cute. i'm not as happy as i can be with it but i'm not entirely mad at it. this was just something to help me get back into writing for this fandom.
> 
> what do y'all wanna see next?  
the final part to Ease and Good Grief? (i'm gonna need some suggestions for this one. please tell me your ideas lmao)  
more Arthur/Charles?  
Arthur and someone else?  
let me know!!  
thank you for reading!


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